Ouroboros
by nightbringer22
Summary: Naru is back form England and all is well. Or is it? What if a new case not only places the whole team in danger but also brings to light secrets that Mai has desperately tried to hide from them for their own protection.
1. Chapter 1

Hey so this is my first story, I really hope you guys like it and if you have any constructive criticism I love to hear some feedback so I can improve my writing. Anyways enjoy and hope you guys review.

**New authors note! I have rewritten this chapter because I didn't realize how short and how many grammar mistakes were in the first draft, hopefully the revised and added on version is much better. I'm new at his so have a little patience with me, by the way I am looking for a beta reader J**

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><p><strong><em>Pain, suffering, death.<em>**

**_Words that no child should know but because of special circumstances I am more than well acquainted with. Bloodstains are forever carved in both soul and the painful stains invisible to others but all so clear to me in my hands because of the horrors that I have committed but in between it all there is still a hope. A small glimmer that refuses to die no matter how hard I have tried to squish ruthlessly from my mind and how much this world has proven me otherwise it is still present within me. A hope that I can protect my loved ones. Normally your first childhood memory would be of being held by your parents, a happy memory, that will help you thought the hard times that lie ahead._**

**_Not everybody is that lucky._**

**_There are some of us that know the hardships of this world. There is no good or evil. There is a shade of gray in this world, there is survival, desperation, and despair. Those unlucky ones are not blinded by the world. The secrets that are carefully hidden to the public and the nativity they posses is astounding. I am happy for them. They will never know the pain that I have experience and that is something that I am willing to protect, so that their unsoiled hands can stay that way and those of us that are damaged beyond repair can protect them._**

**_My first memory is of my father's death. For the first time in my life I understood loss. The burning in the back of my throat as I tried to stop the bile from coming out and the sting in my eyes as I fought back the tears. My mother running away with me, trying to protect me from my father's mistakes. Later, the madness that consumed her because of my own stupidity and the astounding guilt that flooded me every time I would lay my eyes on her. My poor fragile, delicate, precious mother that I tried to protect till the very end but was useless all the same._**

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><p><em>"YOU'R NO CHILD OF MINE GET OUT!"<em>

_Quickly I left before she could do any more damage. Closing the door softly behind me I slid down the door and kept my misty eyes from shedding a single tear. It had been years since I had cried, the last time being when my father was murdered before my eyes at the age of five, and now at the age of ten my heart had been hardened beyond repair._

_I winced and looking down I saw that my side was bleeding, probably from the lamp that she threw at me, and I was more than positive that both my arms and face were mattered with bruises. Sighing I began the painfully stand up while gathering support from the door._

_Hearing footsteps I looked up to the kind face of the maid. With beautiful long hair that reached halfway to her bellybutton and porcelain features she looked like a beautiful doll. She was also the person I considered my best friend and confidant._

_"Mai why do you keep going in there? You know she does this every time you go in there! Let the staff take care of her, she only gets violent with you, I care too much about you to see you like this every day."_

_"I'm sorry Keiko but she's my mother and she's like this because of me. S-she's all I have left."_

_"Mai all I'm say-"_

_BANG!_

_Keiko's eyes widened in fear and slowly turned towards me and yelled, "Run! Get out of here, they found us!"_

_Heart beating in my throat I yanked the door open and slammed it shut behind me, barricading both my mother and I from the rest of the house. Fighting to control my breathing I tried to focus my thoughts._

_Grab mom._

_Get out._

_Run._

_Find somewhere safe._

_Turning around I spotted her curled up in the couch where I had left her paying no mind to the screams that could be clearly be heard from outside the closed and locked doors._

_"Mom get up we need to go!"_

_Looking at me blankly for a second she resumed staring at the wall paying me no mind. Frustrated and gritting my teeth I tried to even out my breathing. Patronizing her or saying the wrong thing could get us both killed, myself at her hands and both of us by those monsters outside._

_Think, Mai, how can we both survive this?_

_BANG!_

_Too late just grab her and run!_

_Escape, flee, anything! Heart beating on my throat I ran towards my mother and hauled her up from the couch dragging her towards the fireplace. Fingers moving frantically around the fireplace I finally found what I was looking for. Pushing the brick that gave away to a hallway I tried to push her towards the entrance but I was met with resistance._

_"Mom we don't have time for this! Just get in there!"_

_"Their here."_

_The single sentence had me whirling around to face her in shock. She hadn't spoken a word to me since the accident and this was the first time I had heard her voice in three years._

_"The ones who did this to me. The ones who took __**him**__ away! They're trying to hurt my Mai too!"_

_With clear eyes she turned to look at me and smiled sadly while saying sadly "I love you Mai don't ever forget that take care of yourself I'm sorry for being selfish but I am going with your daddy. Stay safe honey and don't look back."_

_Suddenly I felt myself being flung into the fireplace at the same time that the doors violently flung open. Whirling around I stepped from behind my mother and pushed her behind me, there was absolutely no way that she would sacrifice herself for me once again. I refuse! Looking up I saw __**them**__; the people who had killed my father in cold blood and in extension were here to tie all lose ends._

_They were all dressed in deceivingly normal clothes for the killers that they were. They surrounded the room two to each side and one in the middle facing me directly. The man in the middle was wearing a red shirt almost as a mocking reminder of the bloodshed that usually followed him along with black jeans and shoes, but the most distinctive feature of was his eyes. Dark black eyes that seem to be an endless reminder of murder, unhappiness, and most hauntingly; death. Harden features surrounded the soulless eyes and an exact shade of black as his eyes was imitated in his hair._

_The most important thing to all of this was that they were all armed with guns and they were pointed directly at us._

_"Yoshido," I said with as much venom in my voice possible for a ten year old directly at the man in the middle._

_"You know it took much longer than we thought to locate you and let me tell you that with our resources that's an accomplishment I am willing to give to you Mai, because lets be honest, your mother is nothing but a shell of her old self."_

_"Now when we killed your father we thought to just kill the whole family but then imagine our surprise when we found your fathers notes on what he did to you."_

_No, my mind screamed, now they know everything and they will never leave you alone!_

_"You my little Mai are a mine of gold! What we been trying to accomplish all these years, failure after failure and I had almost given up!"_

_"You should have, you sick bastard!"_

_Laughing cruelly at me he continued, "We can make this world a better place Mai. If only you help us reach this greatness Mai, we can leave your mother be but only if you choose to cooperate."_

_Mind whirling I thought about the proposal. We could stop running and hiding all the time. Keiko would finally be…..Keiko!_

_"Where is Keiko?!"_

_"Oh the servant girl that follows you around everywhere, she's still alive."_

_"Prove it!"_

_Sighing and looking at me like an adult indulging a child he turned to one of the men to his right and nodded once. He immediately left the room and a painful groan could be herd from the other side of the door along with the sound of something, or someone, being dragged from the floor. The doors reopened and what I saw broke my heart, she was being dragged by her arms and Keiko's once beautiful and clean features were now mattered with blood with her head bowed down and breathing harshly._

_"You sick monster!" a shout was heard from behind me._

_Until this moment I had completely forgotten that my mother was behind me. Grabbing me from my upper arm she flung me to the floor while at the same time a gunshot was heard. After that everything seemed to pass in a blur. Scrambling towards my mother I completely ignored the men behind me and crawled towards my mother. She was laying face down and with a push I flipped her over. Blood was slowly dripping from her mouth she winced in pain and her eyes, so similar to mine, focused on me and gave me a weak smile. Patting her frantically I found the wound; it was located right at her heart. It was obvious from the amount of blood gushing out of the wound that she wasn't going to make it._

_My eyes stung with tears of frustration. Once again she was suffering and it was my fault._

_"You shouldn't blame yourself for this Mai I did this because I love you and no mother should see her daughter die before her."_

_Without another word she slowly closed her eyes and just simply __**died. **__There was no shudder no cry to indicate her passing and no obvious revelation that she was gone after our five years of hiding. Head pounding I looked up, rage building up within me, wanting nothing else but to hurt these bastards. No, not only hurt, but to kill! A emotion that I was not accustomed to and I embraced it fully not wanting to deny the giant monster screaming for revenge within me._

_Before I could even think of doing anything at all I felt an arm wrap securely around my waist and the last thing I felt as I succumbed to darkness was a cloth being pushed to my nose and mouth and smelling a strange sent._

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><p>Breathing harshly I scrambled out of bed sweaty and cursing profusely at the alarm clock I took a moment to gather myself and breathe normally. I hadn't dreamt of the past in a while and it gave me a dark sense of foreboding deep within me and the pessimistic side of me whispered in my ear, <em>its because you deserve to remember, remember that all of your family is dead and its ALL because of you, how does it feel like to be a murderer<em>?

In. Out. In. Out. Breath Mai that's in the past and there is nothing you can do to change it. You can only move forward from now on.

I had a family now that I had begrudgingly let into my heart, not counting my happy exterior. In truth I was as weary of them as anyone else I had ever met.

Smiling grimly, the image of them all standing together popped into my mind. Naru with his ever-present blank expression firmly in place, Lin with a nonchalant stance along with Ayako hitting Monk with her purse and him with an annoyed expression and John trying to calm them down while Yasu and Masako just ignored them all.

They were the family that I protected now without reservations and of course there was no way they would ever learn just how far I had gone to protect them. Even Naru that jerk. Especially after my failed love confession even though it was the last thing that I had wanted to do.

Unwillingly the memory resurfaces bringing me back painfully three years ago in the airport.

_"Naru you can't get on that plane!"_

_"Oh," he said raising a eyebrow condescendingly at me "why shouldn't I? I have what I came here for."_

_Heart constricting and throat closed up preventing me from revealing the truth I blurted what came to mind._

_"Because I love you!"_

_Eyes widening I looked at him in disbelief. I couldn't say what was the real problem but I also couldn't lie. That meant…..no! I can't fall in love! This is the worst thing to happen to me!_

_"Do you love me, or gene?" and without another word he whirled around and walked away like what I had said didn't mean anything to him._

_That bastard! He didn't know but it was all the same. Didn't he know that by me saying that I loved him was making my world crash down?_

_Breathing heavily I felt a hand clamp painfully on my shoulder._

_"So you love him? Interesting Mai, I might just blow up the plane for fun now, I didn't even think you could be possible of __**love**__ of all things."_

_"We had a deal Yoshido, you leave them alone __**all of them**__, and you get your toy back."_

_"But this would be soo much more interesting don't you think? Oh well I guess I just have to settle down with making you suffer for a long time since a deal is a deal."_

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><p>I had given up the freedom that I had fought for so many years to obtain but one threat to them and it had all gone to hell.<p>

I couldn't risk them getting hurt because of me.

It didn't matter because I had escaped one again and keeping under the radar for about a year now and at 19 I was free from them completely.

Squinting at the alarm clock that had woken me up so rudely I looked at the blurry red numbers and squinted a bit so I could make sense of the time: 8:30. Shit! I'm thirty minutes late; Naru is going to kill me! So without further thought to my dreams, dark thoughts, and lost and regained freedom I picked myself off the bed and went about my hectic routine of getting ready.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! I'm so happy with the response that I am getting and thank you to all of you who reviewed/followed/favorite the story. You guys are freaking great! Muahahaha (too much?) I just finished my last exam and as a reward I am writing the second chapter to my story because lets be honest those exams killed me and I need an out from my self induced food coma and Netflix marathon after I decided to drop out of college and become a hobo. Lol I'm kidding. (I think) **

**IMPORTANT! IF YOU READ THE FIRST CHAPTER BEFOR I REVISED IT I HIGHLY ADVICE YOU GOING BACK AND READING IT AS I ADDED MUCH MORE AND YOU WILL BE LOST!**

When Mai breathlessly barged into the door of SPR, an hour late, the first thing that she noticed was the glare directed at her form the couch. If looks could kill she would have died a million deaths. The one who had graced her with such determined icy glare was none other that Naru who was surrounded by the whole team. The atmosphere was tense and oppressive and I wondered if I was finally in for it.

"So Mai you thought that being an hour late was acceptable?" Naru bit out his teeth clenched.

"What's going on guys?" I asked slowly as I hung up my purse and approached them with caution.

"We have a new case," Monk replied.

"Which you would have known about if you would have been _on time _Mai," Naru said with resignation coloring his voice.

This put me on edge immediately, because Naru never passed up an opportunity to argue with me. It was how we interacted and if he was ignoring me being late plus the tense atmosphere it meant that something was seriously wrong.

Sitting down next to Monk he continued, "but that's not all, it's a very dangerous case that could possibly put us all in danger which is the reason we need to decide if we really are prepared for this kind of case."

"To fill in Mai and spare her feeling stupid, I'll fill her in," Naru said while opening a case file he had placed on the coffee table.

"The case was brought to me by my father in England and for understandable reasons passed it on to Madoka so that we could take it since the case is in Osaka and my father, at the moment, is busy with a case study of his own. Now this case is strictly confidential and as such I don't think I need to stress the fact that anything that is said in this office cannot be spoken of except of those that have been authorized."

"The building used to be an old government facility that would train individuals for undercover missions, that at this time will not be disclosed to us, and they were of utmost importance and so dangerous that the regular police force were unable to fulfill the role that these individuals played. The building is approximately ten stories high and has some underground facilities that are yet to be explored. The place was shut down recently due to the fact that they discovered the use of children as training subjects and other unmentionables had gone rampant without check for years."

" There has been reports of moving objects, unexplained noises such as a piano playing in the distance even though there is no piano, that we can locate, and several of the staff have reported unexplained bruises on their arms, backs, and necks. Now here is where it gets tricky. There has been a previous paranormal research group that has been asked to investigate the establishment but after the death of two of their members they decided to withdraw. After reading through the file I have concluded that the two who were attacked all possessed supernatural abilities so we are dealing with a ghost with a penchant for hurting those with powers."

"Now," he said looking around "considering the circumstances each and every one of you need to really consider if you are willing to put yourself in harms way because you most certainly will be if you decide to join. I will not punish those who do not come and I am even encouraging you to reconsider."

"So you have already decided to go," Ayako stated because it was obvious that Naru would be taking the case, he wouldn't have bothered to even mention it if he hadn't.

This isn't good, I thought, this is sounding too similar but I can't say anything! I need to gather as much information and how the situation will play out first and then I will be able to go from there. I don't like this at all!

"Yes, I do not have all of the information because only those actively participating in the investigation will be privy to the information, those who will participate will have to sign a nondisclosure form with the government in about a hour. They will come to confirm our participation so those who do not wish to continue should leave before they arrive."

"This is dangerous guys I don't think that we should be doing it," Monk said looking around at everyone.

The grim looks on everyone's faces were encouraging to me; maybe they will all back down.

"I'll be going I don't think it's right to leave a ghost to wander without direction, they just need to be shown to a better path," Masako said form behind her kimono sleeve looking resolute.

_No! _

As one the rest of the members gave the affirmative and not having a choice I simply nodded once as I look at Naru. Sighing he nodded back at me at the same time as the bell jingled signifying that the door was opening.

There dressed in an official all black suits, were two men. They couldn't have looked more different if they had tried even with the identical suits, one had blond hair that seem to have a mind of its own, haphazardly laying in every which way with kind features and bright blue eyes that seem to scream sunshine, while the man on his left had hard features that seem to bee stuck prematurely on a scowl while his hair and eyes were a matching black.

Smiling brightly at them the man with the blond hair spoke, "Hello everyone, my name is Daichi and my partners name is Minaru, we are part of NPA, or National Police Agency for those who do not know, are we to assume that everyone has agreed to the nondisclosure form?" he asked.

Without waiting for a reply he and his partner sat down on the opposite couch and made themselves comfortable. The man with the scowl on his face, Minaru, continued while pulling out a folder from a suitcase that had gone unnoticed from everyone until now "The forms are here and we will wait for all of you to sign them before we are able to continue."

Looking down at he document that John had passed to me I began reading the document. Among the usual nondisclosure there were clauses of silence and the normal fines but there among the list cleverly hidden was something that I had not expected.

"Incarceration within the facility?" I asked coldly.

Everyone except Naru and Lin looked up in surprise, having not read the contract thoroughly before reaching for a pen to sign it.

"Yes," Minaru said, "there is a lot of information that is highly sensitive that can be unknowingly shared and is highly dangerous even if it's between inmates."

Scowling at the man I signed the form and handed it back.

"Now that everyone has signed we are going to fill you in on the detail of the investigation. The facility in which you will be transported will be in Osaka, you will be able to make your own way to your destination and if not there will be vehicles that can be arranged for your convenience. Now while you will be investigating the case there will also be other teams of paranormal researchers that will be present not actively working on the extermination of the ghosts but on other duties that have to be taken care of. The main goal of the organization that the government founded was to find better ways to make clean and reusable energy that could be used indefinitely and would, one day, replace the energy source that we now use. As predicted the project was highly confidential because of the fact that if successful Japan would benefit in an innumerable amount financially as every other country would want to switch to the new energy source, that even though highly expensive when purchased, would greatly save the economy of the country within five years. In the end it was impossible for the scientist to forge a new energy source, there was always one element that was always missing, until one day a scientist by the name of Yoshido Matsuo managed by accident to uncover a certain gene within human beings that would stimulate the proficiency of strength, memory, and over all ability of an individual. We are not saying that we could suddenly turn normal everyday civilians into soldiers but those select few that had the gene within them had a high probability of becoming useful to the government."

"As expected the once peaceful mission of the facility took a severe turn and became a bioweapons research center. Yoshido, along with a team of his most trusted scientist, made an expansion of the gene and made it into a drug to administer within those select few that the government had pre-approved but despite their great accomplishment they kept on trying to make a breakthrough that nobody but themselves knew. "

"The information we are about to give you was not privy to us until years later and it was a breach of security on our part but it has been handled. It wasn't until later that we found out that one of the scientist under Yoshido's command managed to make the breakthrough that they needed. The name of that man was Kenji Nakagawa, he managed to not only find a way to expand the effects of the drugs but also managed to pinpoint the best candidates for the drugs, he figured that those individuals with the gene had a descendant with "psychic" abilities and wondered what would happen if he would directly inject the drug not into a descendant but into a active "psychic." The results, he found, we horrendous."

"Not only did the drug expand their physical attributes to something unparalleled, their psychic powers were tripled in power and intensity. That in itself wouldn't have been considered horrendous but when Yoshido found out of the results he quickly wanted to bring in more subjects and continue to experiment. Yoshido then not only perfected the drug but also expanded on the knowledge that those with prime endurance were children between the ages three to seven. Kenji when he figured out what Yoshido was doing destroyed his research greatly crippling the project and then left the research facility. To this day we do not know what has happened to him as he went into hiding and has never been heard of again."

"Yoshido, years later, was somehow able to start up the project again and under false birthdays managed to place children as study subjects. He later called them, shadow children, due to the fact that with their psychic powers and the administrated drug they were able to slip in and out of whatever mission they were given no matter if they were assassinations on high profile clients. The government used them for a long while not knowing that the shadow children were just that children and they were not shut down until one and a half year ago when it was discovered what exactly was going on. The facility, otherwise known as Ouroboros, has been on lockdown since then and when our men tried going inside the facility there was an immediate resistance."

"It was brushed off in the beginning as nonsense until agents started getting hurt. When the paranormal team was brought in it seemed to calm down slightly until it escalated to the deaths of two of their members, afterwards, they, understandably, decided to withdraw form the investigation and we needed a new paranormal group that would be able to get rid of the problem."

"Now, there is also the situation with the underground facility, we have been unable to open the elevator doors that will get us down their and the stairs are in the same condition. We do not know what we will find down their and for that purpose my partner and I will have to be present at all times to ensure your safety when we do manage to get to the underground levels. The shadow children, when found, managed to disappear into nothing but the few of the ones that remained behind have been trying to help us penetrate the lower division of Ouroboros. We are trying to figure out where the rest of them are but so far the shadow children that we do know of refuse to give any sort of information on them and we must respect their wishes despite what we may think. They have gone through enough as it is. Many of them are diagnosed with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, along with depression, anxiety, and depression so its best if you keep out of their way I you don't know how to deal with the situation. I know this is a lot to take in but we will be counting on all of you to complete your job."

Smiling gently Daichi at the teams' shocked faces he continued after his partner, "You are expected to be on the site in two days and will begin the investigation as soon as you are settled down. There will be three rooms designated for your convenience so you can decide who will seep with who and there will also be a base for you to set up any equipment that you may need but we have been told that there is already some surveillance system already set up throughout the whole building but you can bring whatever you think will be necessary. Pack for a long-term mission and be prepared to be evaluated by psychiatrist throughout the investigation to see if you are ok to proceed with the investigation once you start seeing things that civilians are not prone to experiencing."

"I believe that is all for now," Minaru stated, "we will be taking our leave for now and we will see you in a couple of days," and with that both he and Daichi stood up and left leaving a stunned paranormal research group behind.

While everyone else was lost to the horrors that they had just been told I tried to keep my calm and not show any outward reaction to anything that had been said. The more information that came out of both detectives the more I had to control myself from having an outburst and making everyone suspicious. _Everything is fine Mai if it all works the way we plan it they will never have to learn anything! Calm down! If there is something that you should have learned in that place is how to shut your emotions down and not __**feel**__ anything._

With that in mind I forcefully slowed my wildly beating heart and evened out my breaths to that of sleeping rhythm. The sweat that had begun to gather on both my brow and upper lip immediately dried and my pupils dilated back form fully blown form fear to their normal size. What they had said wasn't the whole story, which meant that the others had said nothing and that they were blindly grasping at the facts that they had found and come to their own conclusion. That was ok, we were never there to inform them of anything we just wanted to be left alone but that posed another threat. They said that they were trying to reach all of us and all though we had all taken many measures to become untraceable if they looked deep enough they would find us all and bring us all back to that hell hole.

"As you heard, this is not going to be a easy case so I wan all of you to go back home to rest and think about the consequences of your actions. I will see all of you in two days."

"Oh and Mai," he said before standing up, "tea."

With that he then vanished into his office or as I like to call it his brooding cave. Lin then slowly closed his laptop and gracefully moved towards his office without making a sound leaving the rest of the SPR case to deliberate amongst us.

Slowly the rest of the team left in twos or ones each either talking quietly about the case or thinking deeply of the days to come and with nothing else to do I sighed and moved to the kitchenette to get that bastard his tea.


End file.
